Unlike Pet Sounds, where you can set the CD player to shuffle and come up with a random auditory delight, this album warrants a serious listening session. It's a gorgeous, yet not necessarily an immediately easy listen. Sonically, the album is a first rate treat, recreating the feel of the original sessions and instrumentation. It's a bit jarring to realize that it isn't the Beach Boys on these tracks (including the vocal standouts Our Prayer, Cabin Essence and Surf's Up), yet the one thing that comes through on these tracks is the sheer enthusiasm for them, where the existing Beach Boy Smile fragments reek of nothing other than desultory going through the motions.
Our Prayer is juxtaposed with the early doo-wop "Gee", although "Gee" is altered into something else (As a side note "Gee" is co-credited to Morris Levy, undoubtedly the inspiration for Hesh on "The Sopranos"; Levy is also the ahem, co-writer of classic doo-wop such as "Why Do Fools Fall In Love"). The revamped "Heroes and Villains" is a much more satisfying, yet challenging effort than the original to my ears. If anything, the Beach Boys only fully realized "Heroes and Villains" on the great 1973 "In Concert" set, an album that put full-throated rock voicings to a lot of great songs like "Sail On Sailor" and "Marcella". The end of the first suite (for want of a better term) is the eerily beautiful "Cabin Essence", whose "Who ran the iron horse?" choral arrangement still sends chills down my spine.
The lushness of the arrangements works well with classics such as "Surf's Up" (another tragically underrated Beach Boys song and album) and "Good Vibrations", although the purists will cringe at the reworked lyrics of "Good Vibrations". The latter is especially poignant, as "Good Vibrations" was always Carl's song (there are affectionate dedications to Carl and Dennis in the liner notes, and the other members of the Beach Boys are notably absent in the acknowledgements).
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